Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 355,760 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after acquiring an additional 6,237 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 6.7% of Plato Investment Management Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Plato Investment Management Ltd's holdings in Apple were worth $82,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Apple by 5.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $10,909,457,000 after buying an additional 3,245,281 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $7,291,583,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065,759 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 34,486,195 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $8,035,283,000 after acquiring an additional 432,140 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on Apple to $184.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $238.02.
Get Our Latest Report on AAPL
Insider Buying and Selling at Apple
In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.
Apple Trading Down 3.2 %
Shares of Apple stock opened at $222.64 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $241.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $230.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.20.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. Apple's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.
Apple Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple's payout ratio is 16.45%.
About Apple
(
Free Report)
Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.
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